Common in Oxfordshire, to the furthest point of Earley, in Berks., so that formerly when Sonning was the only Church in the Parish, some persons, as I have heard, used to meet in the same Church on Sunday, as fellow parishioners, who lived more than 10 miles apart. The river Loddon (famous in Pope's poem of Windsor forest, as "the nymph Lodona,") bounds us from the parishes of Hurst, Wargrave, Shinfield, and Arborfield. The boundaries from Reading, Caversham, and Shiplake are merely arbitrary. The river Kennet which flows into the Thames divides part of Earley from Reading. Though situated in two counties, we are a Berkshire parish, and are now included in the Archdeaconry of Berks. The origin of the name of this county, (I may mention in passing.) has been much disputed some deriving it from a box-wood called Beroc, others declaring it to have signified a bare or unbarked oak, called Beroke. The name, whatever be its meaning, seems to be included in that of Bi-broc-i, given by Cæsar to the inhabitants of this district. : The greater part of the land is on chalk. with fine beds of gravel here and there. From the old chalk pit in Holme Park, on the bank of the Thames, the chalk was no doubt taken for the building of the Church. After this introduction we hope to continue from time to time some notices of the History of the Parish, and its inhabitants. For any information. or mention of any books or documents from which information may be derived on the subject we shall be most grateful. Meanwhile we trust that our readers will make kind allowance for the errors and deficiencies that may appear. They are almost unavoidable, for unfortunately no parochial documents, that I am aware of, are in existence to guide our researches. There may possibly be some records in the Registers of Salisbury Cathedral, with which Sonning was closely connected, that have never yet seen the light, concerning which I mean to make enquiry, but. at best, the facts to be noted are "few and far between," until quite recent times, and a good deal I fear of the early history must be conjectural. To be continued. H.P. BAPTISMS. SONNING: ALL SAINTS: July 7th. Ada Jane, daughter of Parfit Ford, and Rhoda Allwright. Elizabeth Ann, daughter of John, and Mary Ann White. July 9th. Joseph Adey, of St. Mary's, Reading, to Sarah Adey, of Woodley. William Spencer, of Sonning, to Harriet Felicia Mason, of Sonning. June 26th. Mary Ann East, of Sonning, aged 76. June 29th. Rebecca Greenaway, of Woodley, aged 10 months. July 20th. Priscilla Pearson, of Pimlico, London, aged 90. ALL SAINTS: July 7th. Thomas Hawkins Dunsden, aged 1J. CHURCH SERVICES. The Services of Sonning and of All Saints' Church, will be the same as in the month of August. SONNING & ALL SAINTS' SCHOOLS. The Annual School Feasts were given at Sonning on July 26th, and at Caversham Park on July 30th. Both were beautiful days, and everything passed off, as usual, most successfully. MEMORIALS OF THE PARISH OF SONNING. II. Of the earliest inhabitants of our parish I am sorry to say I can give no account. The name, Sonning, as has been said, points to the Saxons, but at what time a settlement was first made here, we cannot now ascertain. All that part of the parish which lies in Berkshire must have been formerly covered with wood, and was included in Old Windsor Forest. A small area out of the Forest was in early times cleared here, as in other parishes, close to the river, and the site of the Church, in every case, was fixed almost upon the banks, the river in those days being the chief highway. The selection of Sonning for a settlement was determined, I believe, by the facility it afforded for establishing a mill, between the branches of the river enclosing Sonning Eye. There is no doubt of the great antiquity of a mill at Sonning, as it is mentioned, together with another, (i.e. Sandford mill), in the survey of Domesday. In Saxon times Sonning Parish must have been of considerable importance, as it was not only situated in two counties, but actually in two kingdoms, Berkshire belonging to the kingdom of Wessex, and Oxfordshire to that of Mercia. There are said to be records of a bridge in very early times over the Thames at Sonning. The position of Sonning as a sort of "border parish," between these two great Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of Wessex and Mercia, would account for there being a bridge here, when there were few others over the Thames, if such were the case. The present bridge is of comparatively modern date, though no doubt parts of a much more ancient structure are enbedded in it. "Suning bridge of tymbre,' is mentioned by Leland the antiquary, in his Itinerary, written in the reign of Henry VIII. There has been much dispute when Christianity was first introduced into the kingdom of Wessex, in which, as just mentioned, Sonning was situated. Neither by Augustine, the first Archbishop of Canterbury, nor any of his successors, was the conversion of Wessex attempted. The first preacher of Christianity there, seems to have been Birinus, who came into England on a mission from Honorius, the reigning Pope, in the year 634, having" as the Venerable Bede says, "promised in his presence that he would sow the seed of the Holy Faith in the inner parts beyond the Angles, where no other teacher had been before him." This missionary Bishop, Birinus, truly called the Apostle of Wessex, was successful in converting Cynegils, king of the country, to the Christian faith. Under the year 635, we find this entry in the Saxon Chronicle, "This year king Cynegils was baptized by Birinus, the Bishop of Dorchester, and Oswald, King of the North Humbrians was his Godfather." Dorchester is we know situated on the Thames in what is now Oxfordshire. In that very early time the limits of the two Continued at end. Continued from second page. kingdoms of Wessex and Mercia, were continually shifting. From the fact that Dorchester was the first seat of the Bishops of Wessex, it evidently belonged to that kingdom in the time of 1 ir nus. It afterwards passed over to Mercia, and became the seat of the Bishopric, until its final removal to Lincoln. The diocese of Bishop Birinus was of enormous extent; it comprised, at the least, the districts afterwards known as the counties of Hants, Wilts, Berks, Dorset and Somerset. A sub-division was made of this vast diocese, in the year 705. Ina was the king at that time, and he constituted two Sees, one of which was fixed at Winchester, and the other at Sherborne. Berkshire then became part of the diocese of Sherborne, of which St. Aldhelm, one of the most interesting personages of early mediæval times, was the first Bishop. So things continued till the year 904, when a second sub-division of the dioceses in Wessex took place, and here we come to what is most interesting in our own history, but what has also been for long, a matter of controversy amongst historians. The Bishoprics of Winchester and Sherborne were now divided into five, i.e., Winchester, Ramsbury, Sherborne, Wells, and Crediton. concern is only with the See of Ramsbury, which seems to have comprised the counties of Wilts and Berks. Florence of Worcester, who lived in the reign of Henry I, speaks throughout his history of the See of Ramsbury, but in the catalogue which he gives of its Bishops, he styles them "Episcopi Sunnungenses,' Bishops of Sunning. On this statement Sonning claims the dignity of having been an Episcopal See. It will be proper therefore to state here, the reasons for and against the truth of the claim. Against the supposition that Sonning was the actual See of these Bishops, it is maintained that they are usually styled in the ancient charters, Episcopi Corvinensis ecclesiæ, i.e., Bishops of the See of Ravensbury or Ramsbury, Corvus being Latin for Raven. Moreover their Bishops were called Bishops of Wilts, in which county Ramsbury is situated, though it certainly appears that Berkshire was included in the diocese of Ramsbury. In favour of Sonning there is of course, first, the distinct statement of Florence of Worcester, in whose catalogue we read as follows:-"The names of the Bishops of the Church of Sunning. It is difficult to see how so clear and distinct a statement of the name could have been made by this historian, (regarded as a most trustworthy one), unless Sonning had at best an equal claim with Ramsbury, to be the episcopal seat. It is a further evidence in our favour that the manor of Sonning belonged to the Bishops of Sarum, (who succeeded to the desputed See of Sonning or Ramsbury), at the time of the conquest, and was the place of their residence till the reign of Elizabeth. It may also be added, that there is a general consent of historical authorities in our favour: Camden, Leland, Bishop Godwin, Dr. Heylin, and others, all speak of the Bishops of Sonning. Lysons however, on the other hand, in the account of Berkshire, contained in his " Magna Britannia.” writes thus: "It has been said that Sonning was a Bishop's See, during the separation of Wiltshire, and, as some suppose, Berkshire, from the See of Sherborne; but Bishop Tanner's editor, on the authority of William of Malmesbury. who expressly says, that Wiltshire only was separated from Sherborne, is of opinion, that the Bishop of the new See had no other seat than Ramsbury, until Bishop Herman removed to Old Sarum." I do not know that much can be built upon the traditions or present features of Ramsbury and Sonning respectively. Last year I paid a visit to Ramsbury, for the purpose of seeing with my own eyes the place which is so closely connected with Sonning by this rival claim. The Church is certainly an ancient and spacious fabric, and if well restored might have a certain dignity, but it cannot for a moment come into competition with Sonning for beauty of Architecture, or interest of detail. I am bound however to confess that there was within the memory of man, the ruin of what was supposed to be an ancient episcopal palace close to the Church, and, traditionally connected with it by an underground passage. this need not disturb us, for we know that there was a palace at Sonning from the time of the conquest till the beginning of this century. So that locally there is as much to be urged on one side as the other. But The conclusion to which we must come seems to be this: that the Bishops were generally known as Bishops of Ramsbury, but that as they resided equally at Sonning, they were considered also Bishops of Sonning. It has also been suggested with great probability, that these Bishops were subordinate, or inferior to the greater Sees, not having chapters or regular cathedrals, but were somewhat like the suffragan Bishops who were set up by Henry VIII. If this were so, they might have taken the title of Ramsbury or Sonning, according as individual choice settled them at either place. Whichever view we take, the interest so far as Sonning is concerned is the same. It is pleasant to think that though it is now only a village, it must once have been a place much more widely known, and even of national interest. Beyond all doubt there were for 150 years Bishops residing here, holding their services and ordinations in the ancient Saxon Church which unquestionably stood on the present site, and exercising jurisdiction over the whole of the surrounding country, and no less than three, out of the eleven Bishops of Sonning. whose names have come down to us, were translated to the Archiepiscopal throne of Canterbury. H.P. To be continued. MARRIAGE. SONNING: August 3rd. John William Plant, of Woodley, to Ellen Marshall, of Sonning. |